


Adventures With Pen Boy

by Kitkat3600



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Collegestuck, Humanstuck, M/M, got this from an AU prompt on tumblr just saying, im trash, yeh more erisol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-04-25
Packaged: 2018-03-25 18:32:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3820567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kitkat3600/pseuds/Kitkat3600
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's this douche bag who keeps asking to borrow Sollux's pens. Every. Damn. Day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Adventures With Pen Boy

You had always thought that college would eventually get harder. You almost started hoping it would get harder, because honestly, the lack of any sort of challenge was nerve-wracking. You had always been pretty smart, jumping grades like hopscotch and nailing A’s on tests like a goddamn brainiac maniac. So really, it shouldn’t surprise you when every assignment feels like simple busywork. But you wouldn’t dare ask for harder stuff, because who wants to be that asshole. Not you, certainly.   
No, the only thing remotely difficult about college was definitely all of the people. It seemed like everyday there was a new professor or some new girl or that one guy again with the weird tattoo. Seeing people was never really your strong suit, much less talking to them. So when this fucking douche bag asks for another goddamn fucking pen, you’re about ready to explode.  
This guy happens to be in your foreign studies class, and for some reason, always asks to borrow a pen right before class starts. Every. Day. It’s weird, and actually sort of creepy, because he always sits next to this really pretty girl who you’re sure has a bunch of pens, but it’s always you he asks.   
Except that’s not even it. He has a laptop where you are 100% sure he takes all of his notes. He would never even need a pen.   
So why does he keep asking you?

Pondering pen boy has quickly become a thing you do regularly. Does he have a notebook and his laptop? What does he do with all of the pens? Does he understand it’s costing kind of a lot to get new pens every two weeks or so? Does he know the cost of a box of pens these days? What’s up with the girl he sits next to?   
It’s becoming kind of an obsession. You’ve counted exactly 86 pens he’s borrowed/stolen throughout the year. You were almost starting to think it was some sort of joke, like how many pens he could get from you before you snap. But it doesn’t seem right somehow. He always seems kind of embarrassed, or at least hesitant to ask. He never laughs or even smiles. You don’t think you’ve ever seen him smile.   
Maybe he just loses the pens. 

It’s been a few months, and you’ve counted 108 pens MIA. He’s kind of cute, really. You had never really noticed, but he’s actually kind of hot. But also creepy and also a pen thief. He stopped sitting with that pretty girl he was/is friends with. Were they dating? Maybe, but she seems sort of out of his league.   
He always wears a scarf with blue stripes. That’s something you’ve noticed, and it’s incredibly weird. His outfits change (besides from all those stupid-looking rings), but the scarf is a constant. It’s probably sort of special to him for some reason. Oh, and great hair. That guy has some great hair for a creepy pen-thief. 

The holidays are quickly approaching, and you’ve counted 126 pens and one small crush. That’s right, you’ve got a thing for pen boy. Oh, but his real name is Eridan. You heard the pretty girl from before yelling at him earlier. They’re definitely not friends anymore, certainly not exes.   
He’s still creepy, and he’s still a pen thief, but he’s also really intelligent and sort of funny in an awful, cruel sort of way. Whenever he’s reading something aloud or just talking, he always makes it sound like some kind of performance. You wonder if he’s an actor.   
You decided not to go home for Hanukah. Holidays are always sort of weird in your family, and you can probably find a menorah at Walgreens or something. 

It’s the first night of Hanukah, and you’re sprinting to the CVS on the corner to see if they have any damn menorahs. Time had sort of slipped away from you what with all of the last-minute assignments you were rushing to finish.   
Your lungs burned, and you groped around in your pocket for your inhaler. As you scrambled around trying to find the damn thing, a small, orange light caught your eye. The end of a cigarette, held loosely in a gold ringed hand.   
You knew those rings. Although you had never taken Eridan for a smoker, you can’t help but admit it makes him look incredibly sexy, wisps of smoke blowing past his slightly parted lips.   
But be also looks uneasy, and rather downbeat. Maybe he’s still messed up about that girl. Hell, maybe you are. Who knows.   
“Hey.” His voice is a fractured croak, much different from his usual uppity tone.  
You wave, take a breath from your inhaler, then speak. “Hi.”  
He’s not looking at you; he’s not looking at anything, just the darkness.   
“Sollux, right?” His voice cuts through the traffic life a blunt, rusted knife. How does he know your name?  
“Yeah. You’re Eridan. Foreign studies.”  
“Correct.” He raises the cigarette to his lips again, his breath short and hushed.  
“Those things will kill you, you know.” Shit. Way to sound like his damn mom, Captor.   
But he just laughs. “Oh really?”  
You clear your throat, eyes on the ground. “Yeah.”  
He turns to look at you with a flash of movement. “Well thanks for the reminder, pal. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a lot of thinking to do.”   
Huh. Pen boy is actually kind of a creepy asshole. You stare at his back, shaking lightly from… Wait, is he crying?  
He is. He’s all but bawling now, and damn if it isn’t the saddest thing you ever heard.   
“You… Alright?” The question sounds lame even to you, but whatever.   
His face is buried in his hands, the cigarette smoldering on the cool cement. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”  
Any thoughts of having a nice candle lighting by yourself have completely left your mind. You should probably get him home.   
“Eridan. I’m taking you home.”   
His sobs turn into an ugly giggle. “Buy me dinner first, dork.”  
He did not just call you a dork to your face. The tables have turned. Crying or no crying, he’s being sort of a dick.  
“You steal my pens. Every day. It’s weird, and annoying, and you have a laptop so you shouldn’t need a pen. You shouldn’t lose my pens. It’s rude.” You sound a lot angrier than you meant to, but it works. He stops laughing.  
But he’s still smiling, wide and playful. “Want ‘em back?”  
The question hangs in the cold air, accompanied by your still panting breaths.  
“What?”  
“I asked, do you want your pens back?”  
“…I guess so, yeah.”  
That stupid grin is back, and he laughs to himself. “Then let’s go.”

Against your better judgment, against all judgment, you walk with him back to his apartment. It’s in the slightly better part of town, and it shows. His apartment is larger, but not nicer. It’s sort of a mess, actually, with a lot of empty beer cans and cigarettes in places they shouldn’t be.   
“Come on. Over here.” He leads you down a short hallway to a bedroom.   
Half of it is pretty much completely bare, except for a twin bed stripped of any bedding. There’s a closet on each side of the room, one full of clothes (Eridan’s), and the other empty except for a few hangers. The other side has another twin bed (with you know, sheets and stuff) and a lamp.   
It suddenly dawns on you. Pretty girl was his roommate, probably his girlfriend even. She must have moved out when they had that fight.   
Eridan is rooting around in a dresser by his bed, cursing under his breath. After a moment, he comes back up with a bundle of pens held together with a blue rubber band.   
“Here. That’s most of them.”  
He disappears down the hallway again, coming back a moment later with the rest held in a clenched fist.  
“Sorry I took all of them.”  
“It’s alright, I guess. Do you even use them?”  
He gives you a quizzical, if not annoyed look. “What? Yeah, I use the pens.”  
“For what?”  
“…Notes? What else?”  
“You come in everyday with a laptop! Why don’t you just take notes in a word document or something?”  
He sighs, a sad smile on his lips. “That would be Fef’s. I just carry her stuff for her. Well, I used to.” He mumbles something under his breath that sounds a lot like bitch.  
“Did you and her date or something?” You’re probably being super nosey right now, but you’ve lost all concern for politeness.   
He shrugs. “No. She just lived here.”  
He gives you look of suspicion and distrust. “You don’t got the hots for her or something, do you?”  
You shake your head no, and stuff the pens in your pockets.   
A large part of you just sort of wants to leave, thank him for the pens and get the hell out of there. But another part tells you to stay.

You stay. And you and Eridan talk for a long time, mostly him ranting and pacing around his room and you nodding accordingly. You learn a lot about him, and even more about Feferi. He was crazy about her, she wasn’t interested, they both said some things, she left, he started drinking a lot more, he was crying outside of a CVS. It’s hard to blame her, honestly. He’s a mess, but you guess you can appreciate it. Everything in your life has always been so orderly, and Eridan is a beautiful change of pace.  
You end up getting his number. Will you ever call him? Probably not. 

It’s the next day, and you’re in your Foreign Studies class. You don’t really expect any interruptions, so it comes as a surprise when you feel a tap on your shoulder and look up to see a smiling pen thief.  
“Mind if I borrow a pen? Oh, and maybe like, dinner or something?”  
Yes and yes.


End file.
